Metal: Just admit it! My guess was as precise as a slice of diamond-saw cut pumpkin pie! Just say yes already and admit it!

Silver: No, no, and for the last time NO! You can't make me!

Metal: Really now? Does a feline enjoy the sweet draw of catnip's fumes?

Silver: Yes of course but how does that…! Time out! Stop right there! I wasn't saying 'yes' to-I mean I was just answering your-AAAH! CURSE YOU METAL SONIC!

Metal: Easy does it killer, no need to get your quills in a twist. Though I would say you've been caught 'blue' handed! ;)

Silver: I-It's not over yet! I'll have my revenge by getting the truth out of you too! Ha! So there!

Metal: Sorry hedgehog, I'm afraid the words 'gullible' and 'stupid' aren't in my programming.

Silver: URRRGH! *Tackles Metal headlong*

PoC: *Walks in on the wrestling pair* A male bonding ritual perhaps? 'Tis a beautiful/dreadful thing indeed!

-l-

Lost but not Forgotten

-l-

Being knocked senseless had unpleasant side-effects to begin with, not taking into account the 'delightful' circumstances one might wake up to. Rubbing his sore noggin the powerhouse echidna's reflexes urged him to pinch his nose at that sickening smell of rot and death. How long had he been incapacitated since that ambush, or perhaps the more pressing question was who, who had managed to injure him so? Forgetting his contract with Maasawd entirely, Knuckles wrapped his egotistical head around paying back the bastard(s) that dared to disrespect him with a sneak attack.

"They'll be wishing they finished the job." He growled, but added then with a disturbing licking of his own lips "'Cause I'm going to do a whole lot worse to them heh-heh. Mmm…vengeance is going to be sooo sweet…" Evil thoughts clogged up his already putrid, crime-loving brain, or what little of it he made use of. He hadn't counted on that Maasawd fellow making good on his deal anyway, so a hunt to vent his pent up wrath might be just the thing he was waiting for.

Using careful footing to not bother any of the cell's…permanent residents, he made his grand exit with the smash of his fist, clearing away the decayed bars from his path. Even if he had a key in his possession, Knuckles found some special meaning in destroying objects without rational reason, almost as though he was born to wreak unnecessary havoc. Whatever his thinking, or lack thereof, it definitely expedited his intended escape, albeit in a clumsy fashion as his roughhousing brought down the catacomb roof on his head, nearly leaving the poor fool buried alive. Emerging in a surprised/relieved gasp, the echidna heaved his dust-ridden self up and used the newly-formed rubble stepping stones for his exit. Reaching the outside came as such a literal 'breath of fresh air' that didn't see the prying set of eyes watching his every move.

"Quiet an exit, child. About as graceful as I am young." His mystical stalker played at some sarcasm with all but the lightest hints of mockery. Knuckles' blood froze and stomach dropped upon hearing that old voice again, only this time it sounded very real and embodied, as if the hag had returned to plague him in person.

These fears proved valid as there she stood, waiting no doubt to bestow more curses upon him than she had before. Hadn't his last punishment been enough? Hadn't the 'pouring of woe upon his soul', as she put it, been enough to satisfy whatever sadistic pleasure her wrinkled butt got from watching him suffer? Well the joke's on her because he's actually starting to like his 'curse', so she can piss off with any of that 'remorse' stuff she expected him to have.

Apparently sensing his thoughts, the sage-like echidna spoke again "I doubt you mean that Knuckles, I doubt you long for more pain. But surely you must know why I made you suffer, or do you not remember your first terrible crime?" she probed at his memories, knowing how stubborn his spirit is, even under extensive pressure.

There was, however, no need as the callous red mobian now wore an unusual look, one that no other had ever expected to see on his heartless features: It was a stare of brief grief, sadness, and regret. He did his best to shunt the weakness into the back of his dark mind, but too late to stop the fleeting thought from being read. Matters were complicated when the kindly woman took several steps forward, eventually coming much to close for comfort. Knuckles wished he could run or at least hide his face to avoid being read by her invading thoughts, but to no avail. Here stood the most frail-looking of any mobian he'd ever seen and yet he was unable to make a single motion against her.

"I marked you so that everyone would know of your crime. I took from you your prosperity, your status, and your friends. To be marked in such a way is irreversible, save for by your own hand." Here she stretched out right arm, laying the tip of her index finger at the center of his white birthmark. In that moment, the echidna felt the memories of his life, prior to his fall, return in an unrelenting cascade. Seconds of being subjected to this was all he could bear, as he found the willpower enough to smack her hand away, collapsing to his knees soon afterwards.

The elderly tribeswoman offered a small look of sympathy before saying "Whatever you seek, be it cold vengeance or pure redemption, you will find with Sonic and the others. Assist them in bringing down the common foe you both share, and then I shall consider lifting your curse." She didn't seem surprised in the least when she heard a bitter fit of laughter carry itself through the freezing air.

"Don't talk nonsense. That Sonic and crew of idiots ARE my enemies, and even if they weren't there's no way they'd let me help them out, not that I'd want to anyway!" Regardless of his ironclad points, the older woman returned a resolute stare of sincerity, with no shred of humor or falseness at all. Knuckles figured this woman was crazy enough with her hexes and whatnot, but this request ascended her to the level of a certified lunatic. What exactly did she have in mind this time?

"I will say no more. But if you should decide to seek them out, you need only tell them this." Halting momentarily, Knuckles was shell-shocked to see her wrinkled, ugliness melt away to reveal a lovely young echidna girl with the same stern but kindly face "Tell them that Tikal sent you. Do this and your desire will be fulfilled, be it evil or good. Know this though: I would not come to you now if I thought you to be beyond hope." With her speech at an end, the girl vanished out of existence, leaving the place he was standing as barren as when she'd arrived.

Knuckles paused in total silence, contemplating her words seriously for the first time in years.

L

*With Sonic's team*

L

Attempting to make the dreaded phone call had done a number, no pun intended, on Sonic's re-forged, but still shaky, nerves. Those long minutes of mustering up the courage to tell her about Tails were sadly, though in a wry ounce of comedy, nearly wasted on a very convincing voice mail system, much to his crew's sour amusement. Trying three times and failing finally convinced the hero to let it go for now. Crumbling over the inevitable helped no one and nothing, mainly now since his attention was needed elsewhere, specifically in the direction of a shouting Espio.

Sonic followed the beckoning to the same fork in the road where he and Vector had parted ways. Unsettlingly, the nearer he got to the chameleon's voice, the more his nosed picked up a smell he could never forget, not after the countless robot's he'd smashed and all times he'd seen his beloved Tornado wrecked. It was the suffocating aroma of smoke, likely that of an aircraft.

His stomach turned at a sudden suspicion: Could this be why Amethyst wasn't answering him?

Keeping his cool-head turned out to be a good choice, for indeed the crash-site was much too small to be Vector's ship-house, but a closer investigation served to turn his temporary relief over once again. The downed vessel was a familiar round black ball-shape with a thick grey-steel frame girdling it's main body. It's frontal windbreaker lay smashed half-inside a nearby tree, while the cockpit controls threw tiny sparks from shorting out. Perhaps the only plus-side came from the lack of blood and conflict, suggesting that the pilot might've bailed out to avoid the crash.

"This is bad…" Espio put his opinion out bluntly. Sonic cocked his head in curiosity, which the ex-ninja took as the blue blur's wordless way of asking 'Really? How come?' and so he said "Did you forget? Robotnik had the other stones in his possession! Though we may lack proof, I'd say it's more than likely that our shade probably got to him first."

Based on this information, and the ever-worsening state of affairs, none would blame Sonic if he decided to his lose his sanity right here, right now, but he, having grown quite accustom to the raw deals he had thrust upon him, stood his ground. For better or worse, these developments had inadvertently doubled his motivation to get in contact with Amethyst, stemming from an easy deduction: If Robotnik was in trouble then they might know more about his disappearance, given how they were the ones charged with searching his base.

"Alright, I'd better call Vector about thi-Hmm? Espio man, what's up?" the hero was surprised feel the reptile's grip on his wrist. Meeting him face-to-face revealed Espio's chastising glare, practically threatening to rip a hole through Sonic over his yet undetermined mistake.

"I will contact Vector; YOU just keep calling you-know-who until she picks up. She deserves to know what happened right away. Do it for her sake." The rest of his words, judging from his deadly frown, screamed 'And do it quickly or never dare to sleep in peace again'. The speedster inwardly sighed at the pointless aggression he was shown, but wisely said nothing so as to not further provoke the stealthy trickster. Through it all, he knew that was simply Espio's way of showing what sparing empathy he had in those ice-cold veins of his.

Grasping in his pack for his modified ear-phone, Sonic had started to curl his gloved fingers around the device when it vibrated in his palm. He never knew the pulse of mere phone could be so dramatic, so mentally stiffening. His unhappy duty to his best friend would soon be drowned in a wave of understandable anguish and tears. Those two foxes shared a type of bond he himself had yet to fully explore in his own life, thus knew precious few ways to mend things. Despite this, courage had to be the word and the action, as no one could do this job for him. Pressing the 'receive' button down firmly, Sonic answered the call.

"Hello? Sonic, are you there?" here was his last chance to back out. If he really thought it was better to tell her in person, he could divert off course by bringing up Robotnik's trashed craft or perhaps Shadow's discovered identity. This temptation perished soon for Sonic knew Espio had to be listening to his every word. Minimal concern this was as Sonic's conscience would've trampled him anyways for skirting around the sorrowful topic.

"Hey Ame, I'm here." He began rather awkwardly, his emerald-green irises darting to and fro at a violent pace "Look I…I…" in that moment his lids fell shut. He was doing this for Tails and not to save his own hide. Should she hate him for his screw up, so be it. Anything was better than her leaving her afraid and wondering "I have some really bad news…and it's about Tails."

No response came, a barely noticeable change of breathing maybe, but no actual words. This went on for what felt like an aching hour, when it only took seconds for the vixen to say "Go on…"

A hard swallowing emitted from the hero's tightened throat. Was he reading in too deeply or were those two small words the signs of a levee about to burst? Well it was far too late to allow trepidation's snare to hold him back, especially since a girl like Amethyst preferred the honest truth or nothing at all. She was not the kind to take sugar-coating kindly. Aware of this, Sonic confessed openly "We rescued Rouge and also found a long-lost friend, but…I'm afraid Tails has been…captured."

There was no reluctance, only a bit of fear, in the vixen's tone when she abruptly demanded back "Tell me everything."

On and on he went, gathering up every detail as clearly as his mind could recall. No large facts were abandoned to make the talk more bearable, not even his admission to seeing Tails succumb to that evil mask-like object's influence. But no matter what he told her, whether it applied to Rouge's ended confinement or Shadow's jarring identity and memory loss, no more than single-phrased responses could be heard on her side. Stranger still, she never allowed him to stop and give her a chance to wrap her head around anything. Explanation after explanation she absorbed almost emotionlessly right up to the very end.

"So that's what happened…" Sonic concluded, likening his predicament to a prisoner on trial for his life. Admitting his 'wrongdoing' didn't make him a quick believer in that old 'Truth shall set you free' saying, not with how dead the conversation had become. For the dominate period he'd guessed she'd hung up on him, only proven wrong when a sudden gasp touched the limits of his relatively acute hearing. This soon grew into sniffles and soft sobs, but none of the bawling or wailing he'd braced for.

"I'm always telling t-that idiot *sniff* to stay safe and to-to keep out of trouble. B-But I just knew, I knew he'd do something like this *sniff* for one of his friends. I knew ever since he *sniff* lost you and S-Shadow." Ah...so that was it, Sonic finally figured it out. That's why he was so bent on protecting him. Tails felt responsible for all of it, even after they supposedly laid the issue to rest. He must've been prepared to do whatever it took to avoid having a repeat of his past, the past where he lost his brother, and his only real family. Sonic didn't know whether to be sad for having only now discovered the truth, or comforted warmly by the undeserved love his brother showed him.

Amethyst cut in amid his thoughts to say "I'm sorry Sonic… I'm sorry you had to through that too. But I know we'll get him back…we still have a chance to save him. We just have to be s-strong *sniff* l-like…like he was…!" the vixen resisted spilling her emotions astoundingly well, though Sonic was not fooled for he could feel her powerful sadness for Tails on her every word. Moreover, her apologies and sympathy for HIS pain evidenced what a truly crystalline heart she had, in spite of her few shortcomings.

Allowing her a minute of peace, Sonic detected noticeable pulses of strength returning to her voice the next time she spoke "Sonic, you said you guys have reached the meeting point, the crossroads where we split up right? Well I'm going to send you coordinates to our landing zone. Be sure to meet us there in the next hour, understood?"

Did this woman ever run out of surprises? How had she recovered quickly enough to speak, with only a minute of crying? "Um…Amethyst? Are you sure you're alright? We don't have to rush these things y'know." Sonic heard her false resolve fade for a second, affirming his suspicions. However, the girl checked her emotions long enough to give him an equally firm answer.

"Yes we do Sonic. We can't stop, never. Not until Tails is free from that monster." Her tone stayed serious until she continued "Besides, you know I'm really going to let him have it when he gets back." She added slyly, treating their success like it was already a sure thing. He had to hand it her, when she was right she was right. Keeping positive and forging ahead was their best bet, and now with so many new allies on their side, how could they lose? Forgetting the joy of optimism would be a grievous error at this critical stage.

"Well then we better make sure he gets your message up close and personal." The blur proudly donned his famous ego for the occasion "I'll be ready to whip that ghostly freak's butt, making sure he gives you guys plenty 'alone time', sound good?" Sonic teased, abusing the upbeat turnabout for everything it was worth.

"Hee-hee, by all means! Tails dear never was very fond of ghosts." Sonic laughed openly at the thought of a nigh-fully grown Tails still showing apprehension around spirits. Amethyst joined in the laugh as well, but stopped their levity to say "Sonic? Thank you, for being a good friend to us. I…don't what we'd do without you."

A broad, bashful smile spread across his muzzle. He had one more friend to remind him that even with all the harrowing experiences he'd faced, his ability to help others had not vanished anymore than he had "Trust me Ame, I would be dead without you guys. The least I can do is save your boyfriend and return the favor." due to his hog-ish male nature, Sonic chose to break up the tender moment by saying "Buuuut in exchange, you two better get hitched soon after our big after-rescue party or else!"

Unexpectedly, she was neither flustered nor shy by even the tiniest margin when she wistfully replied "Mm…let's hope that day comes soon."

-l-

End of Chapter Thirty-three

-l-

… Alright so Amethyst's reaction wasn't exactly original, but I bet some of you will like it (heck I'm hoping more than just 'some' XD) I could've added more viewpoints and less content, but those drafts didn't do any group justice, so instead you get another compact two-view one! I KNOW I KNOW! Where is Tails, Amy, and Maria, right? I have to tie up the entire chalupa of dramatic mumbo-jumbo one step at a time here. Yes I know I'm fleshing this out too broadly, but I'm shooting for satisfying emphasis on every character (and Lord knows Knuckles does NOT get much love in this story).

DanceDream: You're busy I know, but I understand ALL too well. See you, just like Serenity, next time!

Ghostkid33: Poor Robo indeed (o rly?). But yeah quite a different Shadow, and that's what I wanted. I add several references to other things (not just Sonic), but I do so in my own, anti-plagiarizing way XD. Sadly that Colors thing was coincidence. Argh mid-terms eh? Well good luck! Oh and I'm glad you had fun :)

Serenity: See you next time!

Kindra Mckleen: Well here's the last of that mushy stuff (up until we get Tails back XD) so I hope you enjoy! Yes I like seeing teamwork abroad and not just united into little teams. She's a mixed bag as you can see, but I wanted her to show a growing understanding of how Tails thinks, sort of an indirect bonding between them. Big picture: Sonic makes everything better, even when he isn't the center of attention!

knight of the windZ10Z: That scene was so freaking blatantly stolen from the Sonic shows, but I'm sure everyone knew that! Thanks to Sonic nothing will break her down, that's the beauty of being a third party. If you think about it, Sonic has rather salvaged their relationship, though he probably doesn't realize it (of course he doesn't, it's MY story right? XD). Faith is the Victory! DX Crap, should've used that one as a title…shite XD.

Sierra Zanimalini14: I'm very glad :). *Sigh* I think I'd have slipped back into one of my ruts if it wasn't for all the bada$$ support I get here. XD I don't know why I felt like referencing most of my childhood games for no apparent purpose, but I did!

Super Shadix 520: Thank you! Located and fixed immediately after you told me about it! You rock!

Sparkling-nexis137: Please comment soon! :)

draco'sfairmaiden: Yup he's a faker, but a good one for sure XD. Yeah I want get passed all this dramatic shtuff so I can flesh his character out (with Espio issues no less XD) soon. DX Yeah sorry! What can I say? I love hanging over the edge XD….too many XD's this time -_-'

Corian: Thanks man (I assume I'm correct in calling you that)! It sucks to see so many people come and go, so I hope this plot will deserving of your consistent support!

Killingkathy/Jingle/That D: Oh no there's no way I mentioned that already (although you can technically figure it out on your own, but it would be a one-shot…! I-I mean LONG shot! Yes long! Um…right well… Yeah but he's getting better. That's kind of the theme of this whole tale if you think about it. Sonic is slowly becoming this world's salvation, but not because he's a hero. Okay okay! I stole the premise for this plot from an obscure game! So sue me! Wait! Don't sue me! I…uh…bye!

No line on the horizon: Well…I wouldn't call either of these chapters 'filler' as they serve to properly motivate and condition characters for further developments. Yes I know, quality over quantity and all that jazz XD. I want this fic to be more about how the characters feel, rather than the action they get piled on them. In all honesty though, I haven't had much motivation lately so it might be starting to show :(

Until next time!